Even in a city of eight million people, a good overcoat is all you need to stand out from everything and everyone. Here, Hugh Dancy slips on the season's best as the rest of the world falls away.

The Only Winter Coats In New York

The Only Winter Coats In New York

You may already be familiar with the actor in these photographs from his roles in Confessions of a Shopaholic, Ella Enchanted, and The Jane Austen Book Club. Or you may be a man, in which case: His name is Hugh Dancy. He is thirty-six years old, and in addition to the above films, he has also appeared in Black Hawk Down, King Arthur, and, more recently, the much-lauded Martha Marcy May Marlene, an excellent and hugely disturbing thriller about a woman who escapes from a cult. "The movie sets out to freak you out," says Dancy, who plays the woman's brother-in-law, "and it really succeeds." (For days, actually. Just something to be aware of.)

Dancy, a native of the English Midlands, and his wife, Claire Danes, split their time these days between London and New York, where he's currently starring in Venus in Fur on Broadway. He plays a theater director casting a play based on a book by the inventor of S&M, and it's an excellent setup for his upcoming film, Hysteria, a comedy set in Victorian England in which he plays the inventor of the vibrator. He's still at a point in his career where he can walk around without too much bother, save the occasional Ella fanatic. "There's something really gratifying," he explains, "about meeting a young child who's seen your movie fifteen times and watching them freak out. Because adults, unfortunately, don't do that. Unless there's something completely wrong with them." Or unless they've seen Martha Marcy May Marlene. You never know. —Peter Martin